A/N I haven't decided on who Harry will end up yet, I'm leaning toward Ginny or Luna, but have also considered Daphne, Susan or Lavender, However for the moment I may make Harry a free agent, he dates who he wants to date, Sirius will probably meet someone special soon himself as he deserves love, Remus & Tonks will still end up together.
Chapter six
Sirius was waiting at the wizengamot with Remus, Andromeda, Ted and Dora, he wanted Harry to be there too but he had to stay at Hogwarts, Sirius would catch up with him later, Sirius knew he'd get off, there was enough evidence to prove his innocence, Amelia Bones approached the small group.
"They'll call you in in a few minutes" she said "it'll take no more than five minutes, the ministry is also going to compensate you, 10,000 galleons for every year you spent in Azkaban, so that would total up to 120,000 galleons" she said, Sirius felt that figure was a reasonable enough "Thank you Madame Bones" Sirius said "I fully appreciate all you've done for me" Amelia nodded and she went into the Wizengamot hall, a couple of minutes later his name was called and Sirius went inside, his family and friends waiting and feeling hopeful.
Harry, Ron and Neville choose to eat their breakfast in the House elves quarters today, Harry wanted to avoid The Hufflepuffs and the Slytherins, they had potions with Snape, and Harry was already on edge, he knew Snape would go hard on him and Neville so he braced himself for a difficult morning, Sirius had his trial this morning and he was focused on that, it meant from this summer or any holiday, he would no longer return to the Dursley's, despite what Dumbledore wanted, Harry wanted Dumbledore out of Hogwarts, he and his friends agreed on this, he wasn't any good for his students, least of all Harry himself, Hogwarts needed an overhaul, the new millennium is just a few years away now and yet Hogwarts had more or less had the same staff and teaching methods since the 1950s.
"Shall we head up to potions then?" Ron asked "best to get there early before the greasy haired bat docks points off being late even though we were five minutes early"
The others agreed, The boys thanked Dobby for breakfast as they headed to the dungeons, they were early and the first ones there, shortly followed by Granger, who made a beeline straight for Harry and Ron, completely side stepping Neville.
"Harry, Ron, shall we go to Hagrid's later, together, just the three of us!" Said ignoring Neville "Bit busy later Granger, I'm going to floo call Sirius and Remus later after his trial then I'm going to do some research on wizarding customs after classes are over"
"Such good news about Sirius! I heard his family have a library in one of their mansions, I think he should do the right thing and open up his library for muggleborn students as we're at a disadvantage" inwardly Harry rolled his eyes, she was so transparent it was laughable, he agreed more should be done with help for muggleborns but that shouldn't mean that muggle culture should prevail over wizard culture, nor should it mean that they get automatic help, they have to earn it, that said bigoted pure blood families were no help either, by now all the other fourth year Gryffindors and Slytherins were there, including Malfoy and his goons
"So Potter!" Draco started, Harry had actually never been more thankful at Malfoy interrupting Granger in one of her many rants about how far behind wizards compared to muggles, but he still hated the bigoted moron, in fact come to think of it both Granger and Malfoy were equally bigoted and elitist, "I hear your not taking part in the tournament anymore, not very brace and Gryffindorian of you now is it, if a loser duffer like Diggory is brave enough to take part, surely you can? But then again your only good enough when your weasel and mudblood are around"
"I pick my battles Malfoy, perhaps you should do the same" Harry said looking over Malfoy, Malfoy turned around and Moody behind him "that'll be 20 points off Malfoy, for being a braggart and saying the m word" he said, Snape arrived, "what is the problem Moody" and then turned to Harry and Ron "Is it Potter and Weasley!? Bothering my Slytherins again... that'll be..."
"Actually Snape it was Malfoy he lost twenty points for Slytherin" Harry looked further down the line and saw a boy he knew was Theodore Nott glaring at Malfoy, Nott was standing next to two girls, one brunette and one blonde girl, Tracy and Daphne he thought their names were.
"Very well" Snape in response to Moody, who then said to Malfoy "Maybe you should keep your eye on braggart's like Malfoy, if it weren't for a few technicalities, his father would be rotting away in Azkaban, like he should've been doing for his master" he said threateningly, Harry looked at Ron who also looked back at him, neither of them liked the way Moody said that, it sounded far too sinister for their liking, why would Moody address Lord Voldemort as a master?
"Yes yes Moody, I think that's enough!" Snape said but Moody wasn't done "And you Snape! You also ran out on the dark lord didn't you! Became a spy? More like a snivelling little snot rag who hid behind Albus Dumbledore, why you should also be rotting in Azkaban or better still dead" Moody looked positively deranged, his magical eye swirling around on its own, Snape pulled out his wand and stuck it against Moody's throat "One. More. Word. Moody" he said threateningly, more threatening than Harry had ever seen him, just then McGonagall arrived "Severus! Out your wand away, your scaring the students!" She shouted "this is most inappropriate!" She said as Snape put his wand away, Moody smirked "touch a nerve did I Severus!?" Moody said
"Enough! Alastair leave now, Severus wait here I wish to speak with you, the rest of you " she addressed the students"go inside and wait for Professor Snape" she said sternly the fourth years went inside, the Gryffindors were excited that Snape was put into his place but Harry and Ron seemed unsure about Moody, his whole tone and manner didn't seem to be that if some one who hated Voldemort.
A few moments later Snape burst into the room, clearly in a bad mood, this did not bode well for Harry or Neville, thankfully, Harry, Ron and Neville sat together while Hermione was sat with Fay and Isobel, two other quiet Gryffindor girls, at the back of the class.
"Well" Snape snapped at the fourth years, "turn your books to page 134 then, what are you waiting for!?" The students did as he asked.
Cornelius Fudge presided over the trial of one Sirius Orion Black, and he was shocked to find that there were no case notes over the original trial, and that was because there was no original trial for Sirius Black in 1981 as Amelia informed him of this heinous decision, Fudge was part of the Hit Wizards back then, he was head of that department he was there when he arrested Black, Fudge would never forget that November's back in 1981, there had been reports of a major explosion in a town centre in London, when they got there half the street had been blown to bits, dozens of burning dead bodies, Fudge remembered seeing Black, laughing like a maniac, at the time he really did seem guilty, they told the muggle authorities to inform the muggle population that the explosion had been caused by a rouge terrorist group.
The years 1981 to 1984 had been full of death eater trials and Fudge assumed that Black's trial had been done and dusted in the early days of the trials, but it never went through, and as a result one of the biggest and most vilest of miscarriages of justice had occurred and to a Lord of a Ancient and Noble house no less, Fudge was no fool, he knew Dumbledore could easily have spoken up for Black if he wanted to, it was well known that Black had distanced himself away from his own Voldemort supporting family very early on, and that he fought in Dumbledore's unorthodox group The Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore spoke up for that awful potions teacher of his Snape, Voldemort's fourth in command, Fudge was determined to get Dumbledore and ruin him, he never liked how a headmaster had so much power, he was a chess master, a manipulator.
Fudge got to thinking about Harry, he had to admit he did have a soft spot for the lad, sure he was mischievous but he was harmless, Fudge was determined to form an alliance with the boy, but he wasn't quite sure if he was Dumbledore's man, well if he was he certain wouldn't be after this was over.
"Please give Lord Black veritiserum " Amelia said and one of the guards gave a cup of the potion to Sirius who drank it back, in an instant his eyes went blank, the guard nodded and Amelia asked the first question
"For the purpose of our records, what is your full name" she asked
"Sirius Orion Black" he said in monotone
"What is your birth date?" Cornelius asked
"Third of November, 1959" Sirius replied
"Were you the secret keeper to the Potter's as of the date Thirty first of October, 1981?" Asked another member of the wizengamot
"No, I was not" came the reply
The hall broke out into chatter, until Fudge called out "order, order!" The chatter died down
"Who was the real secret keeper?" Fudge asked
"Peter Pettigrew" Sirius said the entire hall broke out into more chatter with Fudge struggling to keep the members quiet, "SILENCE!" Amelia shouted, "I think we have heard enough to clear Lord Black" she said but Fudge said "one more question Madame Bones" he said, "Lord Black" he said standing up and raising a hand to silence the other Wizengamot members "is Peter Pettigrew still alive?" He finished, there were a few gasps but no interruptions
"Yes, he is" Sirius said "he transformed into his rat animagus form, after he performed the blasting curse on that high street" he said, Amelia stood up before before anyone else could speak "all those in favour of clearing Lord Black of the crimes he is accused of, raise your right hand" she said, raising her own hand, Fudge did the same, before he knew it nearly every hand was raised in favour of clearing Sirius of all charges,
"All those against" Amelia continued, only a small number of people, mainly ex death eaters and adamant Dumbledore supporters raised their hands but it was no use to them, Sirius was cleared, The guard gave Sirius the antidote to the veritiserum and Sirius's eyes were refocused as he blinked a few times as he stood up
"Lord Sirius Black it is my pleasure to clear you of all charges, and may I take this opportunity to apologies to you, for our failings and for taking twelve years of your life away from you" Fudge said sincerely "we are in your debt Lord Black" he said
Sirius was elated, he knew he would be cleared but to hear it officially from the minister's own mouth! It was a heady moment for the rogue
"Lord Black you are a free man" Amelia said smiling as Sirius walked out into the corridor to meet Remus and his family, now he could get back to normal.
Harry was halfway through potions when Snape decided to pick on him
"Potter! Your not stirring the potion right!" He said "do you think you could teach this class!" He said, Harry ignored him, Snape then went over to Neville "and you Longbottom! Are you even sure that your not a muggle?! Because squibs make better potions than you can" he said spitefully, Neville had finally had enough
"Shut up death eater!" He said standing up facing Snape, the whole class looked the two wondering what was going to happen next "who the fuck are you to speak to me like that! Your only here because your former boss isn't around!" Harry stood up to try and take and take Neville out of the room, but Neville wasn't having any of it
"You think you got the right to pick on us Students that aren't in Slytherin! How your still in a job is a mystery, but I have had it with your constant insults! I'm the future Lord Longbottom and one day I could make your worthless, pathetic little life hell!" He shouted, Neville grabbed his stuff and barged out of the classroom before Snape could reply, Snape turned his attention to Harry "Well Potter! What are you staring at?!"
Harry shook his head and gave a chuckle "I'm looking at a git' he said and he followed Neville out of the room"
Cedric was disappointed with his housemates, Hufflepuffs were supposed to be a reasonable bunch but so far most of them had taken to bullying Harry Potter, he distanced himself from his housemates and started hanging around mainly with Cho and his friend from his younger years, Luna Lovegood, Cho had vowed to become a better friend to the young girl.
Luna was pleased to reconnect with her child hood friend, they often played with the Weasley kids and Fawcett girls as children, and both Cedric and Luna were both without siblings so they formed a brother-sister friendship, Cedric was four years older than her so their interactions became fewer and far between, but that changed last year for Cedric when he realised that most of his friends were hanger's on, Cedric had been best mates with Percy Weasley and Oliver Wood but they'd left last term so he hung out mainly with his girlfriend and his sort of younger sister.
The three of them were sitting in an abandoned classroom, Luna was drawing and the happy young couple were talking
"You do believe Harry don't you?" Cedric asked, Cho looked up at him "yes of course I do, I saw his face, it's no way he entered himself" she said "anyway why do you ask? He's out of the tournament thank Merlin" she carried on
"Nah, just wondered, I don't really know him that well, only what Percy told me since his brother Ron is his best friend, Oliver certainly loves him like a brother and they were on the same quidditch team for two years" Cedric said "I just hate how my housemates are treating him, Ernie was bang out of order insulting Harry's parents, it made him sound like that stupid ignoramus Malfoy" he finished, Luna walked over serenely and sat next to Cho and started putting her hair into a plait Cho didn't seem to mind.
"Thankfully us Ravenclaws are assessing the situation, we're not getting involved though some of us do sympathise with Harry, Padma is leading that faction due to her twin Parvati being in the same house as Harry" Cho said "what we don't understand is why Professor Dumbledore didn't try to get Harry out in the first place, it doesn't make any sense" Luna replied "Isn't it obvious, Albus wants to control Harry, my daddy has been writing about this for years" she said nonchalantly Cedric and Chi stared at her open mouthed, Luna continued
"Think about it, Harry was kidnapped after both Lily & James Potter sacrificed themselves for him, and for the next ten years no one knows where he is, except for a few people, one of which being Dumbledore, in truth Harry should have been a ward of the ministry until Sirius Black, otherwise known as Stubby Boardman, was proven innocent." She said "shall I give you pigtails Cho?" The blonde girl asked while Cedric and Cho looked positively bemused at their little friend.